Blithe Spirit Reviewed By George Fleeton

Blithe Spirit REVIEW By George Fleeton The Holywood Players’ production of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit concluded the summer season at the Newcastle Centre (on August 19^th and 20^th). This amateur dramatic company has been performing and touring regularly since the 1930s and usually presents three full length plays each year. The choice of Blithe Spirit would be typical of what it does best. There are better and even more sophisticated Coward comedies than this: Hay Fever, or Private Lives, but Holywood Players has probably done these already. [caption id="attachment_27567" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Blithe Spirit by Noel Coward was performed in the Newcastle Centre. "][/caption] Unfortunately Blithe Spirit does not wear well. It is very much locked into its time (1941), and this quite unimaginative and much too respectful production, directed by Sandra Macrory, didn’t take any risks with the formula. A large part of the problem is Coward’s own writing: it is too self-contained, does not take account of life beyond wit, and has no ambition to be relished by new generations of audiences. This failing is thrown into high relief if one reads his excellent two-part autobiography (where he discusses at one point ‘not being serious about being serious’), and his posthumous diaries and short stories. In that respect his stage comedies all fall into line with the long tradition of country house romantic thrillers, best epitomised by Agatha Christie’s perennial Mousetrap (1952). Generally speaking the cast of seven players worked hard on the night, sometimes a bit self-consciously, the movement direction always a bit stiff, although why use two Irving Berlin songs from 1925 as mood pieces (Always and Remember) when there are so many of Coward’s own compositions that would have fitted the bill? However when it came to the inevitable plot twist in the final scene – what is called the peripeteia, the theatrical conceit which forces us to readjust our expectations – young actor Ruth McCullough managed to steal the show. For those of us for whom all explanations can be found in the principle of cherchez la femme she, the maid always in a hurry,  played her one big scene beautifully and saved the night from an overarching dullness, reflected in a low key audience response to proceedings up  until this very point. David Lean’s film version of Blithe Spirit (1945) can be seen in the QFT on October 22^nd at 4.00pm after which, at 6.00pm, I shall be presenting the re-release of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story on the occasion of that film’s 50th anniversary – all part of the 49^th Belfast Festival at Queen’s. www.holywoodplayers.com www.queensfilmtheatre.com www.belfastfestival.com]]>